Fort of Nine Towers

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A01=Qais Akbar Omar
A01=Shacquan Robinson
afghan interpreter
afghan war
Afghanistan
Afghanistan books
Afghanistan history
Afghanistan war
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Qais Akbar Omar
Author_Shacquan Robinson
autobiography
automatic-update
biography
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=DNBA
Category=NHF
Category=Poetry
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
growing up in afghanistan
history of Afghanistan
Language_English
memoir
PA=In stock
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
softlaunch
taliban
taliban war
true stories

Product details

  • ISBN 9781447221753
  • Weight: 454g
  • Dimensions: 127 x 203mm
  • Publication Date: 13 Mar 2014
  • Publisher: Pan Macmillan
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
  • Language: English
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'To read this book is to understand Afghanistan as it exists today. This haunting memoir traces the unimaginable odyssey of one family whose world has collapsed . . . Poetic, powerful, and unforgettable.' – Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.

A true life account of growing up in Afghanistan, Qais Akbar Omar recounts his happy childhood in Kabul, his journeys with his family across Afghanistan in search of a safe haven, and life under the Taliban rule as a young man.


Qais was eleven when a brutal civil war engulfed Kabul. For Qais, it brought an abrupt end to a childhood filled with kites and cousins in his grandfather's garden: one of the most convulsive decades in Afghan history had begun. Ahead lay the rise of the Taliban, and, in 2001, the arrival of international forces.

A Fort of Nine Towers is the story of Qais, his family and their determination to survive these upheavals as they were buffeted from one part of Afghanistan to the next. Drawing strength from each other, and their culture and faith, they sought refuge for a time in the Buddha caves of Bamyan, and later with a caravan of Kuchi nomads. When they eventually returned to Kabul, it became clear that their trials were just beginning . . .

'Even more haunting than The Kite Runner, because it's not fiction.' – Philidelphia Inquirer

'Here at last is a powerful memoir that does justice to its tough, tenacious and astonishingly good-humoured people. The best thing about it . . . is that it is a book about Afghanistan written by an Afghan.' – Evening Standard

Qais Akbar Omar manages his family's carpet business in Kabul and writes books. In 2007, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Colorado. He has studied business at Brandeis University and is currently pursuing an MFA in creative writing at Boston University. He is a recipient of the Scholars at Risk Fellowship from Harvard University. Omar has lectured on Afghan carpets in Afghanistan, Europe, and the United States. His memoir, A Fort of Nine Towers, describes his life growing up in war-torn Afghanistan, during which he became an interpreter for Coalition soldiers. He is the coauthor, with Stephen Landrigan, of Shakespeare in Kabul.

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